Into the Dark Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count:

Author: Claudia Gray

Timeline: High Republic era which precedes the Skywalker Saga

Main characters: Reath Silas, Dez Rydan, Orla Jareni, Cohmac Vitus, Leox Gyasi, Affie Hollow, Geode, and others.

Brief synopsis: Following a hyperspace lane disaster, the protagonists of the story find shelter at an ancient abandoned space station that is full of mystery and danger.

Gut Feeling

I haven’t been more hyped to read a book in a long while. Claudia Gray is my favorite Star Wars author (I know I’m not alone in saying this) and the High Republic novels already have a lot of existing hype. So, this created a pretty rare combination of hypeness. While Light of the Jedi was world building and A Test of Courage was an exciting self-contained story, I expected Into the Dark to be a character driven masterpiece. While that is mostly true, the surprising strength of the book was what it added to Star Wars lore (although, maybe not so surprising considering the book’s title). This really does increase the strength of this novel. However, parts of the book surprisingly felt incomplete. Almost like Gray had to finish the book against a deadline, but I’ll talk about that more a little later. It didn’t take away from the fact that this was a fantastic novel and will likely rank with the best of them. Let’s get into the details.

Characters (9.25/10 pts)

Because Into the Dark was largely character led, it is no surprise that it scores well in this category (that and the fact that it is written by character master Clauda Gray). The talk of the book is certainly Geode, who is one of the most unique characters ever introduced to the Star Wars universe. Geode is basically just a rock surrounded by mystery. Just like the Jedi in the book, the reader never really gets to understand Geode. How does he move around? How does he communicate? How does he do anything? Who knows! And with that character limitation Geode will likely steal your heart (if he hasn’t already). Pretty creative and impressive writing from Claudia Gray.

Alright I had to talk about Geode, but it is now time to discuss the characters that have some real depth to them. Somewhat similar to Light of the Jedi, Into the Dark has many quality characters (as you can see from my “main characters'' list above). However, it is on a smaller scale than Soule’s High Republic novel. This is advantageous because it allows the characters to have more depth and they are easier to keep track of. Just examining the Jedi alone, there are some unique and strong characters. Reath Silas is coming into his own and offers us a “coming of age” archetype, Orla Jareni is the Qui-Gon Jinn pseudo Gray Jedi type, Cohmac Vitus is a scholar, and Dez Rydan seems like the closest thing we’ll get to a “celebrity Jedi''.

The only real criticism I have for the characters is I never really got the moment in the book where I felt completely gripped by the characters. This is common in books by Claudia Gray, notably near the end of Lost Stars. Claudia Gray is excellent at having these moments surround romantic relationships. I felt that there was potential for this book to have a moment like that, but it just needed more development. This is one of the areas this book didn’t feel like it met its full potential. I will likely discuss this more in the Twin Suns Book Club podcast. However, the book is still getting a strong score of 9.25 points.

Writing Style (9.5/10 pts)

Claudia Gray isn’t just one of the best Star Wars authors at creating stories, she’s also one of the best at telling them. At her best, she has a distinctive style that is compelling almost regardless of the content of the story. For the most part, Claudia Gray was at her best in Into the Dark. Even though certains aspects of the book may have had more potential, Gray doesn’t ever miss when it comes to her writing quality. With little surprise, I am giving a strong score of 9.5 points.

Plot (8/10 pts)

In a book that I must search hard to find a weakness (weakness when compared to the other strong parts of the book, the plot is still good), the plot is the only place I can turn to. For the most part it was excellent though. It felt balanced throughout with peaks and valleys that built up to a climactic finish. It was also high stakes throughout with some twists and turns that I wasn’t able to predict. This describes a pretty awesome plot for a book that is character driven. However, this section gets hurt the most by the fact that it didn’t reach its full potential. There were two key things that were mentioned in the book never really amounted to anything. They were introduced as seemingly key parts of the plot and then somewhat forgotten, or oddly written out of the plot. Great and purposeful authors like Gray never put something in a story unless it has a meaning later in the story. This is the reason why it feels like Gray may have been working against a deadline. However, that shouldn’t deter you at all from reading it. It just means that it could have been even better! I am giving a still good score of 8 points for the plot.

Intrigue (9.5/10 pts)

Intrigue was pretty high throughout the book and I think it never had a chance not to be.  A High Republic novel would have to be pretty bad for it to have low intrigue. This book was written well, had an exciting plot, and compelling characters. And Gray also took advantage of the fact that this was a new time period in Star Wars. She was really allowed to get creative with what she could add to Star Wars. So, along with the great story causing me to read on, I was also compelled by the new Star Wars things that I was being introduced to. I am giving a near perfect score of 9.5 points.

What does it add? (10/10 pts)

In a book with many strong points, what it adds to the Star Wars universe stands out the most. Gray was certainly given the freedom to explore some interesting parts of this unexplored era. There are multiple things for me to touch one, the first being the Drenger. They are the villain of this story (alongside the Nihil) that frighten both the Jedi and the Sith. They seem to have an interesting relationship with the dark side of the Force causing them to be truly treacherous. I expect that we will learn even more about them in future High Republic novels (and will hopefully, hopefully see them in Acolyte). We also get some new glimpse into the Force and Sith lore which I wasn’t really expecting. I was consistently intrigued by what tidbits Gray was dropping into the story. Finally, like the other High Republic novels, we learn more about the Jedi in this period. I would go into more detail on these subjects, but that is a bit too sensitive to spoilers. You’ll have to read it for yourself to find out exactly why I am giving a perfect score of 10 points.

Logic (0 pts)

There is nothing in Into the Dark that adds to or takes away from the logic within the Star Wars universe So I am neither adding or taking away extra points for the logic. 

Final Thoughts

My final score for Into the Dark is a 9.25 out of 10, or an A minus. This makes it my fourth highest ranked novel so far, out of 32 novels. So I think it is easy for me to say that it lived up to the hype. I know it is a theme in this review that it felt a little incomplete, but that is only because I think it could have been even better. This had potentially to be the best Star Wars novel in Canon. While Light of the Jedi is most important to the High Republic era regarding world building, I believe this is the best story. I have no doubt that you would enjoy reading it.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change). 

Bloodline Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: paperback, 394

Author: Claudia Gray

Timeline: Follows Return of the Jedi and precedes The Force Awakens

Main characters: Leia Organa and Ransolm Casterfo

Brief synopsis: It is the age of the New Republic, but a silent threat is slowly growing in power that is strongly sympathetic to the old Empire.

Gut Feeling

Claudia Gray has yet to miss with one of her Star Wars books. Her writing and storytelling has been so good that I’m wanting to branch out and read her non Star Wars novels. Bloodline was another great book set within the Star Wars universe. It had a conceptual feel to it, much like Queen’s Shadow and Catalyst. With these types of books, the storytelling must be high quality because the action is oftentimes lacking and the writing is detailed. Gray was certainly up to the challenge. This was her most detailed Star Wars work yet, but it did not lose any readability due to the details. It is both a great stand alone book and a great introduction to the world of the Sequel Trilogy. Gray has yet to strike out with any of her books so far and I will be highly anticipating her future work.

Characters (9/10 pts)

Star Wars novels that focus on prominent characters within the universe have an upperhand on novels that do not. This is because the reader already has an understanding and emotional attachment to the character. Because Bloodline was focused on Leia, Gray did not have to develop her main character from scratch. So I look for what else I can learn about the character. Leia did have further development in Bloodline that helped to explain how she changed between episodes 6 and 7. It may not have been as significant development as we got in Leia, Princess of Alderaan, but it was still good. 

But I don’t think the strength for this section comes just from Leia. Gray also created several other characters that had significant depth to them. Senator Ransolm Casterfo had to be my favorite. His character is fairly unique and one that we haven’t exactly seen in Star Wars. He also has a pretty interesting relationship with Leia, just adding to the complexity of each character. Casterfo actually changes more as a character within his arch in this book than Leia does. Throughout his story, I developed an emotional attachment to him and was invested in what was happening to him. 

However, Casterfo wasn’t the only good new character that Bloodlines introduced. Characters such as Lady Carise Sindian, Greer Sonnel, Korr Sella, Joph Seastriker, and Rinnrivin Di were also solid with their own complexities, depth, and character arcs. I just won’t spend more time discussing the details of their characters, just know that they were strong. Gray did well with developing her characters and it earns her a score of 9 points. 

Writing Style (9/10 pts)

Well, another Claudia Gray novel means that we have another strong score for the writing quality. As I mentioned previously, the writing style in Bloodline felt a little different from Gray’s other novels. It was much more detailed. This caused the reading to not be quite as smooth as her other books, but this style was needed as the content in the book had a lot of depth to it. It was heavily focused on politics, so the writing had to have many details to completely describe the ideas. It felt less like a typical Claudia Gray novel, but there were still sections where I recognized her style. I credit this to Gray’s skill and adaptability as a writer. She was able to write with a slightly different style and still have a writing quality that was above average for Star Wars novels (this is saying a lot because all Star Wars novels are well written). So Bloodline is receiving a strong score of 9 points for its writing style. 

Plot (9.5/10 pts)

The two biggest problems I have with books for their plot is the pacing of the novel and how it ends. I had absolutely no problems with the pacing or closure regarding the plot of Bloodline. From very early on in the book, I had a good idea of where the plot was heading. This did not make the book predictable, but it was enough to keep me turning pages throughout. It also had enough peaks and valleys early on that successfully built up to a climactic and satisfying finish. Writing closure into a story, and for characters, is no easy task for an author. Gray was able to do so with multiple characters, and that is something that I definitely don’t take for granted. I hate it when I feel the story is incomplete after I finish the last page. I certainly did not have this feeling after finishing Bloodline. My only complaint with the plot is that some of the action scenes seemed to be a little bit forced. They just seemed a bit out of place within the overall story. But this won’t stop Bloodline from receiving another good score, this time of 9.5 points.  

Intrigue (8.5/10 pts)

For being very detailed and having a prominent focus on politics, Bloodline was still an intriguing read. There may be some personal bias here because I am very interested in galactic politics within Star Wars (ironically enough because I couldn’t care less about real-world politics), but I still believe the interest level should transfer to most readers. I think the strength in the intrigue largely comes from the high quality plot. Early on in the book, I knew where it was headed and wanted to find out what would happen. This caused me to be motivated to keep reading and not want to put it down. The only thing hurting the intrigue is the detailed nature and complexity of the book. This just caused me to need some breaks while reading the book because it was sometimes a lot to take in. But that doesn’t significantly hurt the intrigue of Bloodline, it gets another strong score of 8.5/10 points.

What does it add? (7/10 pts)

We’ve had four very strong scores for Bloodline so far, but we now get to the book’s only real weakness. Here is what it adds to Star Wars: an explanation of politics within the new republic era, an explanation to how the First Order came to power, and how the Resistance started to rise against it. While this new content was needed within this time period, it was the sole purpose of the book. So this content was expected and serves as the minimum for what I was expecting from Bloodline. That being said, this content was very good. It exceeded my expectations for its detail. I was very interested in it. That being said, I still wish Bloodline added more to Star Wars that was significant outside of this book’s timeline. It does tie into the Sequel Trilogy a bit, but for the most part it felt self-contained (this is because much has changed between the time period of Bloodline and that of the Sequel Trilogy). This is also a problem I have with books such as Most Wanted and Resistance Reborn. These books are written for the purpose of supplying background for a movie, but they don’t tell us much more than that. Leia, Princess of Alderaan, written for The Last Jedi, probably did the best job, of the books I’ve read so far, of supplying information to Star Wars outside of the book’s intended purpose. But because Bloodline did not add much outside of its purpose, it is getting a slightly below average score of 7 points. 

Logic (0 pts)

I looked very hard for the meme that went something like this: “Claudia Gray watching The Rise of Skywalker finding out that Leia had gone through training to be a Jedi.” Of course, this was followed by a humorous picture exaggerating the face Gray would have been making. Alas, I did not save the meme when I found it and my research proved to be unsuccessful. I was really hoping to show the meme directly below this section. My point is that Leia was supposedly training to be a Jedi around the same timeline as Bloodline and Gray obviously was unaware of that when she wrote the book. So one could argue that logically some of what happens in this book did not make sense because Leia should have Jedi powers, but I would be pretty insane to take points away from Bloodline because of that. It would be more practical to take points away from TROS. So I will neither add to nor take away points from Bloodline for its logic.

Final Thoughts

So my final score for Bloodline is a 8.6/10, or a strong B. This is in the higher area of books I have reviewed. However, it is the favorite book that I have read so far that wasn’t focused on action. Bloodline was more driven on being conceptual, and it did a very good job at that. I’m glad that Gray was trusted with Leia’s character because both books that she wrote focused on Leia were very good. For anyone wanting more Leia content or more information on the gap between the Original and Sequel Trilogies, then Bloodline is a definite must read.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Leia: Princess of Alderaan Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover 409

Author: Claudia Gray

Timeline: Precedes A New Hope

Main characters: Leia Organa, Amilyn Holdo, and Kier Domadi

Brief synopsis: While challenging herself to be validated as the future Queen of Alderaan, a Rebellion that her parents are helping orchestrate takes Leia by surprise.

Gut Feeling

I have some odd mixed feelings over this book. It took me longer to read than expected because around halfway through it was unclear the direction that the book was headed. Because of this, I wasn’t as motivated to keep picking it up to read. But then holy cow, about the last quarter of the book was incredible. The ending was simply masterful. So for a decent amount of the book I was a bit indifferent towards it, and at the end I was SO psyched! Pretty odd mix of feelings. What I will say is it reminded me of Queen’s Shadow (a book about Padme) quite a bit. Both of them involved female leads getting heavily involved in politics that relied heavily on conceptual content over action. While Queen’s Shadow did not do this great in my opinion, Leia: Princess of Alderaan accomplished it well. The ending had my psyched to watch both A New Hope and The Last Jedi, and whenever I have reactions like that I know I enjoyed the book! It may not be my favorite book by Claudia Gray, but it is still a high quality Star Wars novel.

Characters (9/10 pts)

Unsurprisingly, the main character in this novel was Leia so that is where my focus will be for this section. Gray did a great job developing Leia and made her a lot more relatable than I was expecting. In A New Hope, I never thought of Leia as a super relatable character because she didn’t seem to struggle much. In Leia: Princess of Alderaan, in many ways Leia seemed like an average 16-year old. She faced many similar challenges that the rest of us have faced at that age and this gave her character some additional depth and an emotional attachment. In some ways, we find ourselves living vicariously through her. So overall, Leia’s character development in this book was awesome and I found myself both attached to and rooting for her at the end of the book. As this appears to be a common theme with good books I’ve reviewed, this is a good sign for Leia: Princess of Alderaan!

While Leia was the focus, Amilyn Holdo (Admiral Holdo) was also a major character in this novel. As Holdo has a major role in The Last Jedi, I believe her introduction was an important one. Now, I am really not a big fan of Holdo’s character in The Last Jedi as she is a pretty horrible leader and her actions are pretty chaotic. She has been one of my most hated characters in Star Wars. That being said, I really liked the Holdo that I was introduced to by Claudia Gray. She came off as a bit of an oddball, but her character was likeable, relatable, and genuine. If I had read this book before watching The Last Jedi, I would have been less upset about the actions of Holdo and more upset at the writers of the movie for doing this character wrong. So by reading this book I don’t have a new perspective on what Holdo does in the movie, but I do have a larger appreciation for Holdo’s character holistically. Because of Gray’s strong character development and depth, I am giving 9 points for characters.

Writing Style (9/10 pts)

I know I’m not alone in saying that Claudia Gray is my favorite Star Wars author. Her writing style adds much depth while being fairly easy to read. Her way of developing characters makes them very relatable as she touches on unconscious thoughts and emotions that cause the reader to become more in touch with the character. However, this book didn’t feel quite as well written as her others that I’ve read: Master and Apprentice & Lost Stars. But it was still an above average written Star Wars book. Because of that, I am giving 9 points for the book’s writing style.

Plot (7.75/10 pts)

As I stated in my gut reaction, for a decent part of the book it was hard to say what exactly the story was moving towards. This took away from some of my motivation to read the book because I wasn’t dying to know what was going to happen next. But as I’ve mentioned before, how a book ends has a lot to do with the overall quality of the book. And this book’s ending was pretty incredible! I tore through the last pages of the book as I couldn’t put it down, and I was not disappointed! I won’t give anything away, but the ending was everything that I felt it should have been. It provided excellent closure for the story and was a good interlude into A New Hope. Although, I can’t ignore that for most of the book the plot seemed unclear, so I am rewarding a slightly lower, but still good, score of 7.75 points.

Intrigue (8/10 pts)

I don’t want to get too repetitive in this section, but many of it is pretty similar to what was said for the plot. For most of the book, my intrigue wasn’t as high as I expected. At the end though, my intrigue was through the roof! So there was quite a bit of disparity regarding the intrigue throughout the book. What adds to the section is the writing style, it significantly adds to the intrigue. Because it reads so easily, I could read and not put it down when I wanted to. But even though the writing style was so good, I was not as intrigued by most of the book as I expected. That is why I’m giving 8 points for intrigue. 

What does it add? (8/10 pts)

In terms of the story, this book added a much-needed background for one of Star Wars’ most iconic female characters. When Leia and Luke got separated from birth, we learned a great deal about Luke’s upbringing, but we don’t see what Leia had to deal with growing up. Through Leia: Princess of Alderaan, we get this background to her story that I was needing. It gives her character more relatability than we see in the Original Trilogy making her character much stronger. It also gives much more meaning behind the destruction of Alderaan as we learn more about the significance of that loss to not just Leia, but also to the galaxy. So along with containing some clues about The Last Jedi (as this was much of the book’s purpose), it added background information on A New Hope as well.

Along with adding to the story, Leia: Princess of Alderaan also gave an interesting perspective on using the Force. Although the moment was brief, it gave the reader a glimpse of what it is like for a being to tap into and use the Force. This was a pretty cool little addition that I geeked out over. Although the moment was brief, what it added was still significant. 

Overall, what this book added was fairly expected for this novel. It provided background on the movies that I expected and also had the little addition that added to the Star Wars universe as a whole. Because of that, I am giving it an average score of 8 points. 

Logic (0 pts)

There’s nothing in Leia: Princess of Alderaan that significantly adds to or takes away from the logic in the Star Wars universe. But it had an opportunity I think to help explain why Holdo made such interesting leadership decisions in The Last Jedi. Gray likes to take things that seem confusing to Star Wars fans in movies and helps give reason behind them in her books. She did this notably in Lost Stars. I think if this book was written after The Last Jedi that Gray would have done something similar with Holdo, but because it was written before the release of the movie she did not. So I am neither giving nor taking away points for the logic.

Final Thoughts

So my final score for Leia: Princess of Alderaan is a 8.35/10, or a B. This is less than I expected for a book by Claudia Gray, but as the plot seemed a bit confusing throughout much of the book, I think the rating is fair. But the end of the book is what made it so good and will be a big reason why I will be recommending this book to others. All fans of Leia MUST read this book as it adds to her character in a way that the movies were unable to do. Also, because it was written by Gray, you know you are going to get a high quality read. Leia: Princess of Alderaan may not have been Gray’s best Star Wars work, but it is still one of the higher quality Star Wars novels out there.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change). 

Master and Apprentice Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover, 330

Author: Claudia Gray

Timeline: Precedes The Phantom Menace

Main characters: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan

Brief synopsis: An unexpectedly dangerous mission tests the bond of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan’s relationship.

Gut Feeling

Master and Apprentice was actually the first Star Wars novel of the new Canon that I read. I enjoyed this book so much that it got me hooked on this medium of Star Wars story-telling. Some of my favorite stories and characters have thus come from novels, and I owe a lot of that to Master and Apprentice. Almost a year later and I’m enjoying reading them so much that I’ve written over 20 book reviews! Pretty crazy, and I owe a lot of that to this book. But outside of that impact of the book on my life, I obviously enjoyed it very much. Problems with the Prequels aside, I really believe that the universe created by them is the best of the three trilogies. It is simply the broadest and most complex of the three. So, that, and the fact that the novel focused on two of my favorite Jedi made my interest in this book to be high before I even picked it up. That being said, I have been disappointed with books even with high expectations, so Claudia Gray still had to write a good book. And well, she definitely did. It had content beyond what I was expecting, and I was pleasantly surprised at what I learned while reading it. My biased reaction is that this might be the highest quality Star Wars novel out there, but that is before doing my actual rating of the book. We’ll see how the points turn out!

Characters (9/10 pts)

Because Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are such well-known characters, Gray had an easier job because the reader should already have a positive emotional attachment to them. From that, what I will be looking for is additional character development for them that both makes sense and is somewhat unexpected (sounds hard, but that’s why I just review books and don’t write them). But Gray’s focus on the book was not developing them as individuals. Her focus was given away in the title that Master and Apprentice is about relationships, specifically between the master and apprentice. It’s in these relationships that we do learn more about Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, but we get to learn more about other master and apprentice relationships too that give us a better holistic review of what this unique relationship looks like. So I may not have had as much of an emotional attachment to the characters as I expected, but learning about the inter- relationship qualities is a wonderful touch. This is where the strength lied for the characters and that was somewhat unexpected, but a unique look from Gray that I appreciated.

Writing Style (10/10 pts)

Welp, another Claudia Gray book means another good score for “writing style.” No surprises here, but I’ll still try to not sound too repetitive. I’ve mentioned before that Claudia Gray is my favorite Star Wars author, and here lies no exception. Master and Apprentice is up with Lost Stars as the best purely written Star Wars books available. As I might give a slight edge to Lost Stars, it is not by much. Gray is fantastic at touching on our unconscious thoughts and using them to make the book come to life and for us to form attachments with characters. She hit another home run with Master and Apprentice, so I have no choice but to give a perfect score of 10 points.

Plot (9.5/10 pts)

From the start of the book, it was pretty clear where the direction of the book was headed. The scenes near the beginning seemed exciting enough to build intrigue and keep the plot moving, but not too exciting to take away from the climactic ending of the book. There were also surprises that kept things interesting and flashback chapters that helped develop the plot from an interesting perspective. Master and Apprentice kept me on my toes throughout almost the entire book and also had me spinning creative theories in my mind regarding how it would end. Every time I thought I had the book figured out, something else would happen entirely that somehow made sense even though I had never thought of it. My only tiny complaint is with some details of the ending, but the book still had an exciting climactic ending that provided closure for the story. So I am being nit-picky with my minimal complaint, that is why I am giving 9.5 points for the plot.

Intrigue (10/10 pts)

Before starting this book, I had been wanting to get back into reading. I had started with a couple of books, including Lord of the Rings and The Hunger Games, but I wasn’t as interested in completing them. Even though they were exciting books, for some reason they lacked the needed intrigue to finish them. This certainly cannot be said for Master and Apprentice; my intrigue was at a peak throughout almost the entire book. The characters pulled me in, the plot kept me interested, and the writing style made it easy to read. It is somewhat of a perfect storm that made the intrigue for me so high, even from the beginning, so I couldn’t put it down. This is why I am giving a perfect score of 10 points for the intrigue.

What does it add? (10/10 pts)

What everyone, who has read Master and Apprentice, is expecting to be in this section must include the additional information on prophecy. The most significant inclusion was making the actual prophecy of The Chosen One Canon. It was referred to in the Prequels, but in this book, we actually see it written out. That alone would give a perfect score for this book. But, there were also additional prophecies mentioned that were most interesting. I think it has the potential to create even more theory regarding the Star Wars universe, especially because these prophecies are mentioned before any of the movies occur. I won’t go into any details on theory to avoid spoilers, but prophecies are fascinating and the addition of them in Master and Apprentice is a definite strength for what it adds to the Star Wars universe. 

While I mentioned it in length for the “characters” section, the additional information about the relationship between the master and apprentice was pretty interesting. Some of what we learned from that can be used to glean more information about other master and apprentice relationships (like Obi-Wan and Anakin). While it was a strength for “characters”, it is a strength for this section, too.

We also learned a little bit more about how the Force works with animals. It was pretty interesting to see how the Force’s connection between Jedi and beast really bonds the two together. How the Force bonds the universe is often mentioned, but not always explained well in my opinion. Master and Apprentice helps explain this phenomenon and it was something unexpected that I enjoyed. 

So these three reasons together are why I am giving this section a perfect score of 10 points.

Logic (-0.5 pts)

Man, I really wasn’t expecting to take away points from Master and Apprentice, but I feel like I must after re-watching the movies. Something is said in The Phantom Menace about Qui-Gon joining The Council that doesn’t add up with the events that occurred in Master and Apprentice. I won’t say any more to avoid spoilers, but it is unavoidable that I must take away a half point. 

Final Thoughts

So my final grade for Master and Apprentice is a 9.6/10, or a strong A (I’ll give A-pluses for anything over 9.7). This agrees well with my assessment that it is the highest quality Star Wars book that I’ve read so far. I don’t give out many A’s, and this one is a strong A which is significant. It was exciting beginning to end and included content so surprising it made my jaw drop multiple times. There simply is no weakness to the novel. As long as you don’t have some unnatural hatred for anything that takes place in the Prequel universe, Master and Apprentice is certainly a must-read for any Star Wars fan.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change). 

Lost Stars Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: 551

Author: Claudia Gray

Timeline: 11 BBY - 5 ABY (before and after the Battle for Yavin)

Main Characters: Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell

Brief Synopsis: Ciena and Thane have formed an unlikely bond growing up on the mountain planet of Jelucan, but joining the Empire proves to considerably change their lives.

Gut Feeling

After I finished reading Master and Apprentice, I looked up what other books Claudia Gray had written. I loved her writing so much that I just HAD to read more of her work. When I first saw Lost Stars, I was actually pretty underwhelmed. It didn’t appear to follow any main characters and the timeline was kinda confusing, so I looked past it. Not to mention it is kinda long. However, the book's reputation soon caught up with me. I’ve only heard great things about it, fans LOVE this book. So my excitement for the book started to grow and I became fairly excited about it too. I ended up having high expectations for it, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. From the beginning to the end of the book I did not want to put it down. 551 pages did not seem like enough, it left me wanting more and I will be one of the many irate fans if we don’t get a sequel (there are rumors that a sequel is already in the works!). It is one of my favorite books I’ve ever read, Star Wars or not.

Characters (10/10 pts)

Since Lost Stars was not written about characters that have already been developed, Gray had a more difficult task on hand than she did with Master and Apprentice (this book is about Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan). However, it did not take long for me to become attached to Ciena and Thane. I was worried about liking the characters, but it was only Chapter 1 when that worry was put aside. Throughout the entire book, my attachment to them only grew. As the book was coming to an end, I felt myself rooting for the characters from deep within myself. I actually felt distraught worrying about what was happening to them. Gray gives her characters so much depth and Ciena and Thane were both relatable due to it. These characters were incredible and I hope we get more of them, that is why I’m giving Lost Stars a full 10 points for this category.

Writing Style (10/10 pts)

Gray’s writing is really, really good. What she describes and creates is fairly complex, but she does it in an easily readable way. It had depth, but it doesn’t always feel like it, which is a good thing. She also uses the character’s thoughts to bring the characters and story to life. It is a little hard to describe, but their thought processes are clear, and they make sense almost as if I was thinking the same things along with the characters. They are also often subtle, leaving the reader to connect the final dots. This only made me feel more connected to the characters and is something unique that Gray does so well. Beyond that, Gray’s writing style doesn’t seem to have any weaknesses. It was at its best in this novel. Lost Stars gets another full 10 points.

Plot (8.5/10 pts)

The plot follows Ciena and Thane from just before the Original Trilogy to just after. It gives a vastly different perspective on many large events from the OT and uses those same events to advance the book’s own plot. While it followed the same timeline and shared events, it still remained unique from the OT. We got additional insight into those events and viewing them from a different perspective gives them more depth and meaning. How Ciena and Thane’s characters evolved throughout the plot was believable, complex, and compelling. My only complaint about the plot is it felt rushed at some points. While the book was 551 pages, I felt that some sections could have used more depth. Overall though the plot was great and it will still get 8.5 points.

Intrigue (10/10 pts)

Just like how my attachment to the characters began early in the book, so did my intrigue. I was attached to the characters and there weren’t any parts of the book that I wasn’t intrigued about. The exciting finish of the book had me so compelled that I HAD to finish the book. I hadn’t felt this type of commitment to a story in other books like I did to Lost Stars. Even though it was quite long, it did not feel that way. I would often look down and get surprised at how many pages I’d read. This tells me that I was truly engrossed in the story and even flipping pages were forgotten, multiple times. Lost Stars definitely deserves another perfect 10 points in this category.

What does it add? (7.5/10 pts)

After reading Lost Stars, I have a new perspective on both The Empire and The Rebellion. In the OT, The Empire is clearly evil and The Rebellion is clearly good. But Lost Stars makes the binary of good and evil more of a gray area (get it? Cause Claudia Gray wrote the book?). This is closer to what real life is like and it made the whole Star Wars universe more relatable and realistic. It also gives some insight into the Battle of Jakku, which is actually my first insight on it. I know there is material on the battle, I just haven’t read it yet. But there is still more understanding of the battle and it even gives some background to the Star Destroyer that crashed into Jakku. This may not have been needed, but I’m still glad to know it and will think of it when watching Episode 7. So Lost Stars does add some interesting content to Star Wars, but there was nothing in the book that stood out to me as changing how I look at the universe. This is the only weakness I see in the book. This is why I am giving this section only 7.5 points.

Logic (+0.5 pts)

Lost Stars gives some insight into the perplexing battle strategies of The Empire. For example, why they seem to hold back at times even when it seems they should be winning large battles in mere minutes due to their superior firepower. I always took this as The Rebellion being that good, but now I have a better understanding of it. I don’t want to say any more on the topic to keep this spoiler-free, but I am giving Lost Stars an extra half point for the logic.

Final Thoughts

A 9.3/10 makes this book one of the highest rated books I’ve reviewed! And that is saying a decent amount as I’ve rated over 20 books. Any rating over 9 is significant coming from me. Star Wars aside, it was a fantastic book. I recommend it to my friends who don’t even like Star Wars. I don’t think you need to be a fan to enjoy this story: it is that good. So if you love good books and want an exciting Star Wars story (with a considerable amount of romance I should add), Lost Stars is a must-read. I’m confident you will like it as much as I did and I’ll be waiting desperately with many other fans for the potential sequel.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).